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Six brilliant bits of micro-copy you can implement today

Microcopy is one of those things that is hard to define (how does it differ from regular or maxicopy?) but you know it when you see it.

There’s a loyal following of UX bods behind these kind of microinteractions and how they can be enhanced with little pieces of finely judged copywriting.

I’ve written about it before (see previous post on micro-copywriting), but thought I should thrown down some of the finest examples of this fine art.

These are bits of copy most websites could implement somewhere, and without precluding the need for testing, I’m sure they will improve performance.

caSe sensiTive

eBay shows us how easy it is to help the user. No extra copy needed here, just a couple of upper case letters to demonstrate to the hazy what case sensitive means.

Being irreverent with copy and perhaps disregarding a style guide is somewhat of a theme with microcopy. Without condescending to the user, one can include down to Earth copy that people can understand.

Never shared, never spammed

Memonic, a note-taking app, puts the registrant at ease by being pretty bold with its email address field (see more tips here). Whilst ‘never shared’ might be taken for granted by good marketers when asking for email addresses, the user is less than sure.

Of course, one has to make sure this message sits well with other fields. If you also ask users if third parties can get in touch, then this might conflict with the ‘never shared’ message.

Overall though, it’s great to re-assure users like this, as long as you back it up with action.

via https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenbird_ontree/

Lots of best practice from Basecamp

Easy to remember, hard to guess

As much inventive prompting as possible to get users to set a secure password is worthwhile, especially if you can do it like this, without interrupting the UX.

No credit card required

Possibly the most important four words for companies offering a truly free trial. There is no psychological barrier, especially in B2C, as big as thinking a company is going to charge you ad-hoc, or that you’ll forget and be silently charged.

Last week X [customers] signed up with us

Arguably not microcopy, but the subtlety, confidence and transparency in a statement like this is what microcopy is all about. It does no harm to a sign-up page to give the impression of recency by pulling in numbers like this.

These pages are often so static and boring that a statement like this (and a funky illustration – see Vine below) really perks things up.

You can change this whenever

Brilliant from Tumblr. If there’s one way to increase the number of blogs created on their platform it’s to put the user at ease and inculcate them from day one with the spirit of free experimentation.

Recommended

Email remains one of the most effective tools in the digital marketing toolbox, with the potential to deliver a great return on investment.

Data taken from the Econsultancy Email Marketing Census 2014 shows that 68% of companies rate the channel as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ for ROI.

One of the most important aspects of email design is an effective call-to-action, as it needs to inspire recipients into engaging further with your brand.

We’ve previously written about CTA design in regards to ecommerce sites, and many of the same rules apply, but I thought it would be useful to reiterate some of the more important criteria as well as pulling together some good and bad examples.

Not what you want to hear. Sure it’s implied, but as soon as even the most straightforward of online purchases becomes that much more brazen, that’s when us consumers start to rethink our behavior.

So what makes for great ecommerce copywriting? What’s the difference between a quality product listing and a boring list of specs? Does it even matter?

Surely product copy is all about manipulation or at best, gentle coercion?

As content marketing becomes more and more vital to every industry, the ability to create quality copy, even for ecommerce has become a crucial skill. It’s a key way to market your brand and a fantastic way to separate yourself from similar competitors selling the same product.

Your excellent copy and the different ways you can use it can also make your brand more trustworthy and foster a deeper sense of loyalty.

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